Ricky Rimmer’scase headed to Michigan Supreme Court 9/11/25, after COA denial 7/17/25, trial Judge Christopher Blount denial 2/9/25; Judge son of cop Michael Blount, ally of James Harris, who framed Ricky in 1975
Ricky Rimmer with mother Lovie Mae Rimmer, who died in 2023 waiting for his new trial.
Ricky Rimmer-Bey has been imprisoned since 1975, framed up by corrupt drug dealer cop James “Jimmie” Harris, who spent 20 years in federal prison for his crimes after drug bust in 1992. Rimmer-Bey needs support now as his case goes to the Michigan Supreme Court. This corrupt court system has unjustly denied his motions for a new trial and evidentiary hearing at every step, from trial judge Christopher Blount, to the Court of Appeals, which denied his appeal with only a few sentences as if it had not even read his extensive filings.
“I have done 47 years for a crime I did not commit,” Ricky Rimmer, now 68, told VOD today. “Sgt. James Harris told me to sell drugs for him, and I refused. He used to come through our neighborhood squeezing guys, shaking guys down, pushing them up against the cars. I wasn’t going to do that for him. I was young and scared of him, everybody in the neighborh00d was scared of him, they knew he was a dirty cop, putting guys in jail who hadn’t done anything. I knew he would set me up or kill me for refusing. He did both when he put me in here for life.”
************************************************************************************SRead the complete history of Ricky Rimmer’s case by clicking link below, which includes links to all Voice of Detroit stories on RR since 2021
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“MIKE D” DEGRAFFINRIED (2nd from l) AND FAMILY: (l to r) cousin Edward, Jr., mother Evonne, stepfather Johnny, after conviction vacated Aug. 20, 2025
AFTER 26 YEARS, MICHEAL DEGRAFFINRIED HOME AFTER JUDGE TRACY E. GREEN VACATED WRONGFUL CONVICTION AUG. 20, 2025
THE FIGHT GOES ON: Wayne Co. Prosecutor appealed Sept. 25, trying to stop new trial before scheduled pre-hearing Thurs. Oct. 9, 2025 at 9 am; trial on Tues. Nov 11, 2025 in 3rd Circuit Court Judge Tracy E. Green’s courtroom #506 Wayne Co. CJC Criminal Division 5301 Russell Street Detroit, MI 48211
Willie Wimberly, 16-yr. old victim of 1999 Inkster drive-by shooting that killed one, injured two, testified Oct. 8, 2024 at evidentiary hearing that Mike D was not the shooter, as he told OIC Darian K. Williams and Sgt. Gregory Hill at the time.
INKSTER SGT./OIC DARIAN K. WILLIAMS extorted Michigan and Illinois drug dealers during Mike D’s trial, 1999-2001, convicted in fed. court 2003
Inkster P.O’s Gregory Hill and Anthony Abdallah involved in other wrongful convictions in addition to Degraffinried’s,
Inkster PD Officer Jamie Devoll’s PCR from scene 2/15/99 shows chief prosecution’s witness not on the scene at time of shooting.
Mother of Mike D’s son Semaje, co-defendant, swore in affidavit and Walker hearing that Williams and Hill coerced false confession of her role with threats after 81-hr. arraignment delay, she refused to implicate Mike D.
Judge Tracy Green’s order vacating Mike D’s convictions and sentences.
DETROIT– Inkster’s Micheal ‘Mike D’ Degraffinried finally won his freedom after 26 years in prison, on August 20, 2025. Third Judicial Circuit Court Judge Tracy E. Green vacated his convictions and sentences on a charge of 2nd-degree murder, two counts of assault with intent to do great bodily harm, and felony firearm related to a drive-by shooting in Inkster on June 15, 1999.
He had been sentenced to 30-50 years for the murder of Alondre Davis, 5-10 years each for AWIGBH on Willie Wimberly and Raymone Williams, and two years for felony firearm.
Micheal Degraffinried
“I am happy to finally be free,” Degraffinried told VOD. “But Wayne Co. Asst. Prosecutor Deborah Blair filed a 64 page appeal brief Sept. 25. She sees I am innocent, and she has no grounds to stand on. They are trying to circumvent what the Michigan Supreme Court ruled in People v. Johnson and Scott–that it’s not up to the prosecutor or judge to validate witness testimony, but to a jury. They’re supposed to grant a new trial like Judge Green just did.
“For the Wayne County prosecutor, it’s not about justice, just getting conviction numbers. The prosecutor needs to be held accountable for what they do, and they would have less wrongful convictions.”
Willie Wimberley testifies on behalf of Michael DeGraffenried Oct. 8, 2024.
Wayne County, Michigan has the second highest numbers of wrongful convictions in the U.S., which has four percent of the world’s population, but 25 percent of its incarcerated population.
During months of evidentiary hearings beginning last year, defense attorney Tiffany Howell presented testimony from key defense witness Willie Wimberly, 16 years old at the time, one of the two survivors of the shooting.
He swore that Degraffinried was NOT the shooter, as he told Sgts. Darian K. Williams and Gregory Hill in 1999 after the shooting. He also testified that the chief prosecution witness (his cousin Broderick Ward) was not present at the scene during the shooting. This was confirmed by a police report from Inkster PD Officer Jamie Devoll, first to respond to the scene.
Private investigator Vicki Yost (formerly chief of the Inkster PD) testified about the misconduct records of the Inkster police officers in charge of the case. The case even involved a “ghost” victim who claimed to have been shot by Degraffenried, but the prosecution produced no medical records to confirm that.
Above, Michael DeGraffinried’s defense attorney, Tiffany P. Howell, argues his case in front of Judge Tracy E. Green April 28, 2025. (Use Nice Volume Booster for full sound, also read captions.)
Degraffenried said Inkster Police Detectives Darian K. Williams and Gregory Hill violated Brady v. Maryland373 US 83 (1963) by concealing the fact that Wimberly told them that Degraffenried was NOT the man who shot him.
“Willie Wimberly stated in his signed affidavit that he was shot on June 15, 1999… He stated that he saw the person who committed the shooting and he can positively say 1t was not the defendant Degraffinried. He stated that he informed the detectives that tried the case that defendant Degraffenried was NOT the person that shot him. He stated that the prosecution’s office never subpoenaed him to testify, even though the prosecution’s office was charging the defendant with the attempted murder of said victim, yet defendant was never afforded the right to confront his accuser because the detectives hid the interview they had with Willie Wimberly, which 15 a clear Brady violation. Brady v Maryland. 373 US 83 (1963).
Degraffenried wrote further, “[The prosecution] hid this information from the defense and allowed perjured testimony to be introduced to the jury through the state’s main eyewitness Broderick Ward, an eyewitness that the first responding police officer, Jamie Devoll. testified as to not being on the scene at the time of the shooting.”
The prosecution appealed Judge Green’s ruling Sept. 25, claiming that Wimberly’s testimony was not believable, a violation of People v. Johnson, which requires that a jury determine those issues, and also impugning Wimberly’s character because he is in prison, a violation of People v. Hammock.
A pre-trial date is set for Oct. 9, and new trial for Nov. 11 before Judge Green, Rm. 506, Wayne Co. Criminal Justice Center, 5301 Russell, Detroit, MI. 48211.*
Records show that Sgt. Darian K. Williams, the ‘Officer in Charge’ of Degraffenried’s case, was robbing and extorting drug dealers across Michigan, using his police car while on duty, from 1999 through 2001, during the course of Degraffenried’s trial. Williams was convicted in 2003. It is unclear how Wayne Co. Asst. Prosecutor Deborah Blair plans to present any case in a new trial against Degraffenried, considering the appalling account below.
Inkster Sgts. Gregory Hill and Anthony Abdallah also played key roles in constructing the case against Degraffenried, as they did in the cases of several other men, now exonerated. Tiya Manning, the mother of Degraffenried’s son Semaje, testified at a Walker hearing seeking to toss out a false confession obtained by Williams and Hill under severe threats of spending the rest of her life in prison, and in a sworn affidavit as well. She refused to implicate Degraffenried.
Above (l to r) exonerees George Clark, Alphonso Clark, Kevin Harrington; bottom: wrongfully convicted Marcus and Vargo Johnson also of Inkster.
Detectives Hill and Abdallah were cited in the wrongful convictions of George Clark and Kevin Harrington, exonerated in 2021. Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy appealed Harrington’s case FOUR TIMES causing him to suffer through FOUR TRIALS before finally agreeing to his release. Clark and Harrington are shown in the top photo at left, with exoneree Alphonso Clark, Jr. whose case involved another Inkster officer, Anthony DelGreco.
Gregory Hill was als0 involved in the cases of Vargas and Marco Johnson (bottom photo at left), which were covered in the Voice of Detroit in 2021, with claims that he elicited false witness statements for trial.
VOD is currently working on a story involving lifers David McKinney and Robin Hammock, also framed up by DelGreco. Delgreco held McKinney for four days prior to an arraignment, to coerce a confession from a 14-year-old Inkster child implicating McKinney.
David McKinney and mother Cheryl McKinney
The child later recanted, swearing he did not know McKinney and had never seen him commit the robbery and murder of an Inkster gunshop owner, and that Delgreco fed the details to him. DelGreco falsely threatened McKinney with the death penalty, and conducted trackings by different dogs weeks after the incident, using blankets he ordered for McKinney.
More cases continue to surface involving rampant corruption in the Inkster Police Department, particularly in the 1990’s through 2000’s.
But Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy keeps denying even recommendations from her Conviction Integrity Unit to free those whose lives have been stolen by corrupt cops, in league with Asst. Prosecutors seeking to rack up their conviction numbers.
Family, friends of Michael DeGraffenried turned out in force at hearing Oct. 8, 2024
VOD interviewed Mike D’s mother Evonne at court hearing Oct. 8, 2024; she traveled from Texas for every hearing, appearing with dozens of supporters
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James C. Harris’ father James (“Jimmy”) Harris, former Detroit cop and S.T.R.E.S.S. member, (circled) is featured in campaign hand-out card, found thrown on the ground in Oak Park supermarket parking lot.
DETROIT CITY COUNCIL CANDIDATE JAMES C. HARRIS BOASTS IN CAMPAIGN LIT THAT HE IS THE ‘DEVOTED SON’ OF JAMES HARRIS
Disgraced DPD Sgt. and S.T.R.E.S.S. cop James ‘Jimmie’ Harris was charged in 1972 murder, grave wounding of Wayne Co. Deputy Sheriffs, spent 20 yrs. in prison after 1992 conviction from FBI drug sting
In documentary ‘Detroit Under STRESS,’ Harris bragged about his stint on the DPD unit which killed 24 in 3 yrs, leading to massive protests and the election of Detroit’s first Black Mayor Coleman A. Young.
Harris framed Ricky Rimmer for 1975 murder, after Rimmer refused to sell drugs for him; he terrorized many more
DETROIT — It is hard to believe so many Detroiters now disregard the city’s history as a vanguard of the Black liberation movement in the 1960’s and 70’s.
That era saw the 1967 rebellion against Detroit police killings and brutality, the founding of the Republic of New Africa, and massive rallies against the DPD killer cop unit S.T.R.E.S.S., which led to the election of the city’s first Black Mayor, Coleman A. Young, in 1974.
But in recent years, Detroiters have elected Black judges like Christopher Blount, whose father Michael Blount was one of the few Black cops on S.T.R.E.S.S., and other judges who also blatantly ignore the rulings of higher courts on false convictions, as they add to the devastation wrought in the Black community by mass incarceration.
Blount’s father worked with James ”Jimmie” Harris on S.T.R.E.S.S., then surprisingly on Mayor Young’s security squad after Young disbanded the unit.
“Jimmie” Harris was one of the Detroit cops who killed a Wayne Co. Deputy Sheriff and gravely wounded a second, during the 1971 Rochester Street Massacre inside a deputy’s apartment. He spent the next years terrorizing and framing Black youth and running his own drug ring. He later spent 20 years in federal prison after his conviction for conspiracy to sell drugs on the streets of Detroit.
Now Harris’ son James C. Harris is among the four candidates vying for at-large seats on Detroit’s City Council. VOD has contacted him through his campaign website, requesting his stance on his father’s history, and disclosure of his campaign finance reports. His website is at: James Harris – Candidate for Detroit City Council At-Large – Vote James Harris
1971 ROCHESTER STREET MASSACRE of Wayne Co. Sheriffs involving among others: Sgt. JAMES HARRIS of S.T.R.E.S.S.
“Why did a STRESS unit invade a private apartment with guns blazing, killing and wounding other law enforcement officers? To the growing anti-STRESS movement, the Rochester Street Massacre was either the latest example of the unit’s murderous shoot-first mentality, or an even more sinister illustration of the massive corruption at the heart of the Detroit Police Department, perhaps even tied to an internal law enforcement battle for control of the profits from the city’s illegal narcotics markets.”
James Harris called S.T.R.E.S.S. a “worthy” effort in the 2018 documentary, “Detroit under S.T.R.E.S.S.,” boasting that white and Black killer cops in it got along well, including the killers of Malice Green in 1992, Larry Nevers and Walter Budzyn. The documentary ironically cites the drug trade as a leading cause of crime in Detroit.
William Messenger, who grew up in Rimmer’s east side neighborhood, recalled details of Harris’ history in a sworn affidavit.
William Messenger, MDOC photo.
“In 1975, Detective Harris, who was the head of Squad Seven homicide division, was routinely assigned to patrol our community. It was known to everyone that he was a corrupt dirty cop. He had a reputation for getting street guys to say they saw or heard about someone committing a murder or robbery—people who had nothing to do with the crime. . . I personally told Detective Harris when he stopped me on the streets, and again in the witness room at the Frank Murphy Hall, that Ricky had nothing to do with this crime. His response was, ‘I want Rimmer.’”
Ricky Rimmer, mother Lovie Mae Rimmer,
Rimmer himself told VOD in an interview, “[James] Harris was a dirty cop. He wanted me to sell drugs in the neighborhood for him and I refused . . . I knew that he would set me up or kill me. He did both when he put me in here for the rest of my life!”
Ricky Rimmer-Bey, now 70, used these words in a letter to his attorney, dated Feb. 12, 2020, to explain why he is claiming actual innocence, as he has throughout 50 years of incarceration, and seeking his freedom and exoneration.
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VOD’s editors and reporters, most of whom live on fixed incomes or are incarcerated, are not paid for their work. In addition to quarterly web hosting charge. other expenses include P.O. box fee of $226.00/yr., costs including utility and internet bills, costs for research including court records and internet fees, office supplies, gas, etc.
Ruling by USDC Judge Stephen A. Murphy, Magistrate Elizabeth Stafford is first victory in lawsuit vs. conditions at WHC, filed in 2019
Black mold dripping from showerheads onto women at WHV; eats through bricks and door frames, falls from ceilings and air vents
MDOC Director Heidi Washington multiple other officials, represented by MI Atty. General Dana Nessel, promptly appeal to 6th Circuit Court
“MOTION to STAY PROCEEDINGS OR DISCOVERY PENDING RESOLUTION OF THEIR APPEAL by Shawn Brewer, Richard Bullard, Jeremy Bush, Dan Carter, Joel Dreffs, Lia Gulick, Jeremy Howard, David Johnson, Kenneth McKee, Toni Moore, Karri Ousterhout, Joseph Treppa, Ed Vallard, Heidi Washington.” —July 11, 2024
Jay Love, Survivors Speak call for freedom for Krystal Clark; doctor says she must be immediately removed from WHV prison to live
DETROIT–Six years after they filed a class-action suit regarding horrific conditions including rampant black mold and filthy ventilation systems throughout Women’s Huron Valley Correctional Facility, women there won an outstanding ruling from U.S. District Court Judge Stephen J. Murphy June 24, which adopted the March 12 Report of Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Stafford.
It condemns the conditions at WHV in graphic terms and denies qualified immunity to dozens of MDOC prison officials including MDOC Director Heidi Washington, who have dragged the case out for years as over 1600 women (total in 2023) c0ntinue to suffer.
USDC Judge Murphy ordered the parties to submit discovery materials by January 30, 2026. But the defendants filed an appeal July 1o, to the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, followed by a Motion to Stay Proceedings July 11.
The Murphy/Stafford ruling follows a dismissal due in part to qualified immunity and in part due to lack of clear case law on the effects of mold by U.S. District Court Judge Victoria A. Roberts, 0n Aug. 23,2023, leaving it open for an amended complaint by the plaintiffs. Judge Murphy noted in his ruling that the amended complaint, filed Sept. 15, 2023, presented vast extensive evidence of the violations.
On qualified immunity, he said, “All defendants’ Eighth Amendment deliberate indifference claims must satisfy a two-part test with an objective and subjective component. The objective prong asks whether the inmate was incarcerated under conditions posing a substantial risk of serious harm. The subjective prong then asks whether officials knew of and disregarded that excessive risk to the inmate’s health or safety.” Here, Plaintiffs satisfy both prongs.”
Judge Murphy notes, “Defendants suggested that the poor conditions at Huron Valley are part of the routine discomforts of prison life. And they argued that the conditions do not inflict unnecessary and wanton pain. The Supreme Court has repeatedly affirmed that only those deprivations denying ‘the minimal civilized measure of life’s necessities’ are sufficiently grave to form the basis of an Eighth Amendment violation.”
The MDOC defendants’ attorneys had argued during hearings on the first complaint, “There are no cases establishing a prisoner’s right to be free from these molds (Ochroconis, Cladosporium and Chaetomium), that it is not clearly established that any type of mold at WHV is sufficiently dangerous to incarcerated people, and even if it were clearly established that certain molds were dangerous enough to implicate the Eighth Amendment it is not clearly established that prison officials need to take any particular action to remediate the presence of mold.”
Meanwhile, Jay Love, host of the podcast, “Turning a Moment into a Movement,” and Trishe Duckworth, head of Survivors Speak, have mounted an emergency campaign for the release and hospitalization of plaintiff Krystal Clark, who doctors say could die if she is not released from prison forthwith. They are asking people to call Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and email MDOC Director Heidi Washington.
Judge Murphy’s order notes Clark suffers from “severe respiratory issues, uncontrollable asthma, shortness of breath,
breakouts on her face, rashes on her arms, legs, and ankles, weight gain, nosebleeds, incessant coughing, headaches, dizziness, bacterial
infections, severe eye infections that have resulted in having to wear an
eye patch, and . . . ear infections that caused hearing loss and a white residue to grow and leak from her ears.
“Today, it is hard for Clark to breathe anywhere at Huron Valley. In 2015, she was hospitalized for relentless coughing and breathing issues, and she was diagnosed with bronchitis. An allergist has since confirmed that Clark has a severe allergy to mold and that her symptoms are due to mold exposure. Id. Dr. Tran at Huron Valley has said that Clark probably won’t heal until she leaves the facility. Id. at PageID.3413. Clark has been diagnosed with pneumonia twice while at Huron Valley, and she is on three different inhalers and six different medications to cope with her symptoms. ”
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VOD’s editors and reporters, most of whom live on fixed incomes or are incarcerated, are not paid for their work. In addition to the quarterly web hosting charge. other expenses include P.O. box fee of $226.00/yr., costs including utility and internet bills, costs for research including court records and internet fees, office supplies, gas, etc.
Ricky Rimmer with mother Lovie Mae Rimmer, who died in 2023 waiting for him to come home. His motion for a new trial is at the state Court of Appeals.
We are in this battle for new leadership and Detroit Mayoral candidate Todd Perkins got our attention this evening. He cares about Detroit and Prison reform and second chances for Prisoners like Ricky Rimmer-Bey.
Rimmer-Bey has been teaching young men to be better men in the Michigan Department of Corrections for the last 40 years, through the Moorish Science Temple of America. Love, Truth, Peace, Freedom, and Justice is practiced in the system now. because of Ricky Rimmer-Bey’s leadership
We must invest in Detroit – and not just one-shot infusions of aid from our representatives in Lansing. Our young people deserve access to skills training so they can secure good paying jobs. Entrepreneurs must have access to capital to grow businesses that serve their communities. Affordable housing should not be a dream but attainable for every family.
Does the future hold hope for Detroit’s neighborhoods as well as downtown?
Public transportation must be reliable, efficient, and accessible to connect all corners of our city. And let’s not forget our right to clean air and water. These are not platitudes. They are the areas of our society that require real work.
This is a moment of decision for Detroit. Will we continue to accept the status quo, or will we demand a future where all Detroiters thrive? When our neighborhoods mirror the progress that drives our downtown, we will know then that progress has truly arrived and is upon us.
I am running for Mayor of Detroit because I believe in the power of this city and its people. I bring a wealth of legal knowledge, sound business experience, fiscal discipline, strong leadership, incorruptible integrity and compassion for people. I have a real and reliable record of success.
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VOD’s editors and reporters, most of whom live on fixed incomes or are incarcerated, are not paid for their work. In addition to quarterly web hosting charge. other expenses include P.O. box fee of $226.00/yr., costs including utility and internet bills, costs for research including court records and internet fees, office supplies, gas, etc.
DETROIT–This is an urgent plea for donations to keep Voice of Detroit alive. VOD has been published solely on-line for over 14 years. Among our extensive expenses is our quarterly web fee of $465.00, due June 19, 2025. Currently, other expenses including costly car repairs, are limiting our ability to pay this fee.
VOD is asking for help in particular from the families and friends of Michigan lifers whose cases we have covered, and from all others who support the battle against mass incarceration in this prison nation. The U.S. has 5 percent of the world’s population, but 25 percent of its incarcerated population. Michigan lifers themselves are organizing, led by Mark McCloud and the National Lifers Association, Chippewa Branch 1016 as noted in the story below.
VOICE OF DETROIT is a pro bono newspaper, which now devotes itself solely to stories about those who are suffering in 0ur PRISON NATION and POLICE STATE.
Our advocacy for those who have lost their lives to the weapons of law enforcement or their confinement to death in prison, is recognized nationally as outstanding.
As we publish each story, we are contacted by more prisoners and their supporters who need public exposure of their plight. Our extensive expenses include a $465 quarterly web hosting charge, a P.O. Box, internet fees, office supplies, and court costs, are paid for on a fixed income and donations from our supporters, including the loved ones of those who stories we publish.
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Cedric Tooks released April 23 from Lakeland CF after resentencing May 16. 2025, after 47 years served for crime he has always said he did not commit
Tooks re-sentenced under MSC People of MI v. John Antonio Poole ruling (April 1, 2025), affecting 250 defendants who were 18 at time of crime
Defendants wh0 were 19 and 20 at time of crime to be re-sentenced under MSC People of MI v. Montario Marquise Taylor/Andrew Czarnecki (April 10, 2025)
Cedric Tooks’ supporters at resentencing hearing May 16, 2025: (l to r) Travis Herndon (VOD Legal Adviser), Wyman Jenkins, Hosea Fells-Bey, Eric Walston (Prisoners Doing the Right Thing), and Craig Willoughby (Returning Citizens),
DETROIT — Cedric Tooks walked out of Michigan’s Coldwater Correctional Facility May 23, a free man, after serving 47 years in Michigan prisons since 1978, when he was 18 years old. He heads a list of 830 state defendants who were 18, 19, and 20 years old at their sentencings to death in prison, who are finally being re-sentenced as a result of historic Michigan Supreme Court rulings in April which found such sentences unconstitutional. Tooks was re-sentenced May 16 to 40-6o years.
Michigan Supreme Court Justice Elizabeth Welch
“Mandatorily condemning such offenders to die in prison, without first considering the attributes of youth that late adolescents and juveniles share, no longer comports with the ‘evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society,’” wrote Justice Elizabeth Welch in the majority decision in People of MI v. Montario Marquise Taylor/Andrew Czarnecki (April 10, 2025), affecting those 19 and 20 years old at their convictions. She added that violates the cruel or unusual punishment clause of the Michigan Constitution.
Tooks was re-sentenced under People of MI v. John Antonio Poole (April 1, 2025),affecting those 18 years old at the time of the crime. Poole made a 2022 MSC ruling in People v. Parks retroactive to all such cases.
Charles Lewis age 17, in 1977, mother Rosie Lewis.
“I did 47 years for murder, a crime of which I have always said I was innocent,” Tooks told VOD. “I thank God, Judge Kelly Ramsey, and my attorney Sanford Schulman and his staff for believing in me and supporting me until this victory. I am grateful to all my supporters through the years, including Charles Lewis, Hosea Fells-Bey, and Wyman Jenkins, and especially my sister Joyce Easterly and her family.”
Many defendants in such cases, including juvenile lifer Charles Lewis, whose story received extensive VOD coverage, have had valid innocence claims but have been unable to win their freedom on those grounds, in a criminal justice system stacked against people of color and the poor. Several of Tooks’ friends at court supported his claim of innocence, from their own knowledge in the neighborhood where it happened.
Wayne 3rd Circuit Judge Kelly A. Ramsey.
Lewis, who spent 42 years in prison after his 1977 sentencing to death in prison at the age of 17 for the murder of an off-duty policeman, a crime he did not commit, attended all Tooks’ hearings on Zoom. Lewis was released in 2019, after 40 court hearings during which the prosecution adamantly fought to keep him in prison until death. Defense attorney Sanford Schulman also won Lewis’ re-sentencing and release.
During the hearing May 16, Judge Kelly A. Ramsey told Tooks that she was re-sentencing him to concurrent terms on three records, involving a life without parole sentence, another involving life with parole, and a third involving breaking and entering charges.
Tooks had served far more than the minimum sentence and was released from custody at Lakeland Correctional Facility a week later, on May 23, 2025.
Cedric Tooks visits with great-grand and grand-nephews, both Victor Tooks.
“We are re-sentencing you pursuant to Miller vs. Alabamaon 79002773-01,” Judge Ramsey said. “There is an agreement with the prosecution . . . that the people waive their right to request a hearing on a sentence of imprisonment without the possibility of parole under MCL 769.25, and as Mr. Schulman just said, People vs. Stovallwhich is the new case law.”
“. . .The People could have asked for what is called a Millerhearing and asked for my consideration of continuing your sentence life without parole. Miller vs. Alabama requires me to give you a minimum sentence on the murder one charge of no less than 25 years and no more than 40 years on the minimum, with a maximum of 60 years. You’ve already served a substantial period of time. There’s an agreement to re-sentence you on murder one file ending 2773 to 60 years and on the file ending in 2942, armed robbery with AWIM 40 years. These sentences will run concurrent with one another.”
Judge Ramsey noted for the record that Tooks’ acceptance of the settlement offer means that he gives up his right to a Millerhearing, any claim that the settlement offer is a result of promises or threats that were not disclosed on the record, and his right to appeal the sentence, except for newly discovered evidence or a change in the law that would retroactively apply to him or a violation of the settlement offer or Michigan statutes.
Cedric Tooks. others at church
Tooks was jubilant throughout the sentencing, but deferred to defense attorney Schulman for a formal statement.
Schulman noted, “[Mr. Tooks] first appeared for sentencing in this court 17,000 days ago when Jimmy Carter was president. He was a lost young man . . .who had no incentive to go to classes and improve himself, knowing that this was a life sentence, this is your world.
“But he did everything to improve himself. He was a model for the last 20 years. . .His reports are extremely favorable, and the fact that people are still here supporting him [is important]. . . this is a time for him to earn back the trust of the community. He’s given up 47 years of his life. He knows that whatever he can do to change a life, make a difference whatever he can do he will.”
Links to complete Michigan Supreme Court rulings on 18, 19, 20 y/olds:
VOICE OF DETROIT is a pro bono newspaper, which now returns to its current stories about those who are suffering in 0ur PRISON NATION and POLICE STATE.
Our advocacy for those who have lost their lives to the weapons of law enforcement or their confinement to death in prison, is recognized nationally as outstanding.
Our extensive expenses include a $465 quarterly web hosting charge (due March 4, 2025), a P.O. Box, internet fees, office supplies, and court costs, are paid for on a fixed income and donations for our supporters, including the loved ones of those who stories we publish.
FAMILIES AND VICTIMS of Michigan’s juvenile lifers packed the State Capitol in 2006 to lobby for legislation to outlaw juvenile life without parole. Michigan Citizen
VOD Editor Diane Bukowski
Writing for The Voice of Detroit on-line newspaper, published since 2010, and the Michigan Citizen, a Black-owned print weekly, from 2000-2010, Diane Bukowski has covered battles for Michigan’s juvenile lifers at length and in-depth in hundreds of stories. Those battles began with Michigan’s Second Chance Coalition of juvenile lifer families and victims waged in the first decade of this century, from 2000 to 2010 (photo above).
They continued to national victory after the U.S. Supreme Court declared mandatory juvenile life without parole unconstitutional in Miller/Jackson v. Alabama (2012)and Montgomery v. Louisiana (2016), which made Miller retroactive in the face of virulent opposition by many state prosecutors.
VOD wholeheartedly applauds the Michigan Supreme Court’s rulings in PEOPLE OF MI V JOHN ANTONIO POOLE, handed down April 1, 2o25, and PEOPLE OF MI V MONTARIO MARQUISE TAYLOR/ANDREW CZARNECKI.
They are proof that the battle for the most oppressed, including people of color, youth, and especially those who have been consigned to die in our prisons, continues in Michigan, despite the climate created by our fascist, racist President Donald Trump.
Recent articles in the local media, including the Detroit News, have sought to create alarm about the prospect of the release of 830 people who have been languishing in prison, many for decades, since their youth. The real alarm should issue about the ongoing policies of mass incarceration, resulting in thousands of wrongful convictions
Links to People v. Poole, issued April 1, 2025, and People v.Taylor/Czarnecki, issued April 10, 2025, are below.
More than 250 felons sent to prison for life with no chance of parole for crimes committed when they were 18 years old must have their sentences reviewed under a decision released Wednesday by the Michigan Supreme Court.
The unanimous 6-0 decision expands an earlier ruling that lifers convicted of first degree- or felony murder when they were younger than 18 are entitled to resentencing hearings. (Justice Kimberly Thomas recused herself from the case because she was involved in it before joining the Supreme Court in January.) The same will now apply to 18-year-olds.
“And at that resentencing, they’ll have the opportunity to demonstrate to the circuit court that they are rehabilitated and capable of rejoining society,” said attorney Maya Menlo with the State Appellate Defender Office says life without parole remains an option.
“Life without the possibility of parole is still on the table,” she told Michigan Public Radio. “The prosecuting attorneys in each county will review the cases and will decide whether they want to pursue a sentence of life without parole, but we expect that that sentence will be extremely rare.”
Special Assistant Wayne County Prosecutor Timothy Baughman said now prosecutors have to make some decisions on these cases.
“Prosecutors are going to have to look at them and determine, are we just going to accede to a resentencing to a term of years or is this one of the cases that we want to have a hearing on and argue that the defendant should still get life without parole? So there’s a lot of decisions that are going to have to be made by prosecutors,” he said.
The defendant is John Antonio Poole, who was 18 years old in 2002 when his uncle paid him $300 to shoot a man because his girlfriend owed him money. Poole is now 42 and being held at the Richard A. Handlon Correctional Facility in Ionia.
In a related case, the state Supreme Court will rule soon on whether to expand the ruling to include lifers sentenced for crimes committed as 19- and 20-year-olds. ___________________________________________________________________________
State supreme court strikes down automatic life-without-parole for 19-, 20-year-olds
The Michigan Supreme Court ruled Thursday that mandatory life-without-parole sentences for 19- and-20-year-old defendants violate the state Constitution.
The majority decision by a divided Supreme Court held that the sentences constitute “unconstitutionally harsh and disproportionate punishment” and will require resentencing hearings for roughly 580 prisoners convicted of murder. This follows similar decisions recently by the Supreme Court affecting inmates handed automatic life-without-parole (LWOP) sentences for crimes committed when they were 16, 17 and 18.
“Mandatorily condemning such offenders to die in prison, without first considering the attributes of youth that late adolescents and juveniles share, no longer comports with the ‘evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society,’” wrote Justice Elizabeth Welch in the majority decision, adding that violates the cruel or unusual punishment clause of the Michigan Constitution. She also wrote, “We do not foreclose the possibility that LWOP could be an appropriate punishment under rare circumstances.”
Justice Richard Bernstein wrote in a separate opinion that he would draw the line at 25 years old, based on “a consensus of relevant scientific studies.”
But Chief Justice Elizabeth Clement said the majority focused too much on the offender versus the offense.
Clement wrote in her dissent that “the majority downplays the gravity of first-degree murder.” She said, “The premeditated taking of a life is an act of the highest moral and legal consequence. A punishment of great severity is therefore proportionate.”
The cases originated in Wayne and Genesee counties. Andrew Czarnecki was 19 years old and Montario Taylor was 20 years old when they were charged with first-degree murder in separate cases. Their appeals were combined because the constitutional questions were similar.
Attorney Maya Menlo with State Appellate Defender Office said research shows young adults and older teens are very similar and the Supreme Court’s decision in these cases reflects that.
“Adolescents have brains that are not fully developed, which results in them being more reckless and also more likely to rehabilitate,” she told Michigan Public Radio. “The court adopted the scientific consensus that 19- and 20-year-olds have the same reduced culpability and the same capacity for rehabilitation as people who are 18-year-olds and younger.”
Prosecutors say the decisions are also very painful for survivors who will have to relive their loved ones’ murders in resentencing hearings.
Jon Wojtala is the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office chief of appeals. He said the decision is not a surprise, but still “a gut punch” in part because it will require survivors to relive the tragedy of the violent loss of a loved one. He said Wayne County has more than 400 cases to deal with.
“We’re going to have to hustle very, very hard to get these cases to a point of having the resentencings and when we do have the resentencings, it’s a punch to the victims’ families, to the victims’ loved ones, to have to once again be traumatized,” he told Michigan Public Radio.
Wojtala says most of the resentencing hearings will have to take place within six months. He expects the state Supreme Court decision to be the final word.
Rick Pluta is Senior Capitol Correspondent for the Michigan Public Radio Network. He has been covering Michigan’s Capitol, government, and politics since 1987.
VOICE OF DETROIT is a pro bono newspaper, which now returns to its current stories about those who are suffering in 0ur PRISON NATION and POLICE STATE.
Our advocacy for those who have lost their lives to the weapons of law enforcement or their confinement to death in prison, is recognized nationally as outstanding.
Our extensive expenses include a $465 quarterly web hosting charge (due March 4, 2025), a P.O. Box, internet fees, office supplies, and court costs, are paid for on a fixed income and donations for our supporters, including the loved ones of those who stories we publish.
Afeni Shakur was indicted on April 2, 1969, and acquitted on May 13, 1971, of all 156 charges in what was then the longest political trial in New York’s history and the most expensive.
By Ife BJ
In 1969, 21 members of the New York State Chapter of the Black Panther Party, including Afeni Shakur, Tupac Shakur’s mother, were indicted on unfounded charges of violent acts and conspiracies. This was an attempt to dismantle the New York State Chapter, those charged were part of the leadership including Afeni Shakur.
Tupac and Afeni Shakur
Afeni represented herself in court without a law degree and while pregnant, facing a 300-year sentence. The others told her not to do this. She responded, “I am facing 300 years in jail. I am not letting some lawyer who doesn’t have a nickel in this quarter represent me.”
She interviewed witnesses and argued in court, even cross-examining Ralph White, an undercover agent, one of three. White was someone whom she had suspected all along of being a cop since he had been inciting others to violence. She got White to admit under oath that he and the other two agents had organized most of the unlawful activities.
She also got White to admit to the court that the activism that they had done together was “powerful, inspiring, and … beautiful”. Shakur asked Mr. White if he had misrepresented the Panthers to his police bosses. He said “Yes”. She asked if he had betrayed the community. He said “Yes.”
She and the others in the “Panther 21” case were acquitted in May 1971 after an eight-month trial. Altogether, Afeni Shakur spent two years in jail before being acquitted. At the age of 24, her son, Lesane Parish Crooks, was born on June 16, 1971. The following year, in 1972, Lesane Parish was renamed Tupac Amaru Shakur, which means “shining serpent” in Quechua.
Tupac was named after Túpac Amaru II, an Indigenous insurgent leader of the Rebellion of Túpac Amaru II, a rebellion of the Inca against the Spanish in Peru that lasted from 1780 to 1783.
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National Alumni Association of The Black Panther Party (naabpp.org)
Mubarak Hakim (father of child), Penny and Maryanne Godboldo are embraced by children who supported them and Ariana during rally outside Lincoln Hall in Detroit.
Prof. Penny Godboldo is the sister of the late Maryanne Godboldo, who (with Penny at her side) waged an historic battle against the CPS, police kidnapping of her 13-year-old daughter to force a dangerous RX on the child. Dr. Margaret Betts was weaning the child off the drug at the time. Their battle was supported world-wide as Maryanne fought criminal charges repeatedly invoked by Wayne Co. Prosecutor Kym Worthy.
VOICE OF DETROIT is a pro bono newspaper, which now returns to its current stories about those who are suffering in 0ur PRISON NATION and POLICE STATE.
Our advocacy for those who have lost their lives to the weapons of law enforcement or their confinement to death in prison, is recognized nationally as outstanding.
Our extensive expenses include a $465 quarterly web hosting charge (due March 4, 2025), a P.O. Box, internet fees, office supplies, and court costs, are paid for on a fixed income and donations for our supporters, including the loved ones of those who stories we publish.